Word Origin & History

1550s, from Low German daler, from German taler (1530s, later thaler), abbreviation of Joachimstaler, literally "(gulden) of Joachimstal," coin minted 1519 from silver from mine opened 1516 near Joachimstal, town in Erzgebirge Mountains in northwest Bohemia. German Tal is cognate with English dale.

The thaler was a large silver coin of varying value in the German states (and a unit of the German monetary union of 1857-73 equal to three marks); it also served as a currency unit in Denmark and Sweden. English colonists in America used the word in reference to Spanish pieces of eight. Continental Congress July 6, 1785, adopted dollar when it set up U.S. currency, on suggestion of Gouverneur Morris and Thomas Jefferson, because the term was widely known but not British. But none were circulated until 1794.

The dollar sign ($) is said to derive from the image of the Pillars of Hercules, stamped with a scroll, on the Spanish piece of eight. Phrase dollars to doughnuts attested from 1890; dollar diplomacy is from 1910.

Example Sentences fordollar

But in Spain, the dollar goes as far as the pound in England.

One of these missing is worse than a bank clerk out a dollar at the end of the day.

This gentleman gave me a certificate, and, as I left him, handed me a dollar.

A commercial pursuit is one in which the thing pursued is a dollar.

And you have kept every dollar of your money from the charity of emancipating the slave.

You're a coward and a—a fo—ol—and you owe us as much as—a—a dollar.

This is what they call a dollar hotel, I suppose, over here.

She saw what it was making him, jealous of every dollar and every hour spent at home.

I saw them creep over, and knew that we had not a dollar left to live on.

And yet he said tonight he would trust you with every dollar he had in the world.